1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a communications and safety systems in the field of tracking, displaying, and interacting with radio messages and Asset data on the fireground and having applicability to other First Responder personnel including Police and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel.
2. Background of the Invention
Personnel safety is the number one concern for incident commanders on the fireground. Ensuring firefighter safety, accountability, and communications is crucial. Incident commanders must be able to quickly identify who is on the scene, the status of personnel, and the source and status of emergency alert messages.
The characteristics of the fireground have changed dramatically in recent years, with significant advancements in applying technologies and refining firefighting tactics. The introduction of personal hand-held radios for fireground personnel provides a crucial development in safety and accountability. Personal hand-held radios are used by nearly every modern fire department and are an integral component of fireground communications. This advancement provides firefighters with the ability to communicate with others outside their immediate physical vicinity. Additionally, some types of breathing apparatus gear worn by firefighters support the capability to transmit identification data and gear status data (e.g., level of remaining air in tank). RFID tags, sensors, and other technologies are also capable of transmitting digital signals with value for safety and accountability activities.
Although a significant improvement to fireground communications and accountability, the introduction of personal radios gave rise to new issues and safety concerns. One such issue is the treatment and processing of incoming emergency alert messages (sometimes referred to as Mayday messages). With radio networks established, it was possible to communicate among fireground personnel, and, depending on network design, between fireground personnel and dispatch centers. Emergency alert messages could be transmitted to involved parties, from incident commanders at the incident site to operators at the dispatch center. However, an active fireground is often a loud, confusing environment with many transmissions being sent simultaneously. This is especially true when an emergency alert message is transmitted and members use their radios to attempt to identify the originator and work to locate the originator. Often, this results in high-volume radio traffic.
Scenarios such as these may result in an incident commander being unable to reach the person in distress or having the emergency alert message “stepped on” before the sender can be identified. These situations have dire consequences when the originator of the emergency alert is unable to speak or to resend the emergency alert.
Another activity improved but not perfected through introduction of fireground radios was Personnel Accountability Reports (“PAR checks”) and the related Rollcall function. A PAR check is a safety/accountability status verification usually performed at periodic intervals (e.g., every 10 or 15 minutes). A Rollcall is a personnel statusing and “head count” initiated by the incident commander to ensure members are accounted for and is often initiated after an emergency alert is transmitted.
Many departments rely on the incident commander to handle emergency alert messages sent from fireground personnel. The incident commander must identify the source of the message, determine status and location if possible, and implement procedures to rescue the firefighter in distress. Some departments, depending on radio network configuration and department procedures, use the department dispatch center to collect emergency messages and then relay this information to the incident commander on the fireground.
Nearly all U.S. fire departments implement a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) capability such that one or more organizational Units at the incident are “held back” in order to be prepared to search for and rescue downed firefighters during fire suppression efforts. In one particular department, it was found that incoming emergency alert (“Mayday” messages) were handled by a single person on the fireground assigned to the Firefighter Assist and Search Team (FAST), the department's equivalent of the RIT capability. Equipped with a hand-held radio (with a small display window) as well as pen and paper, this Member was assigned to monitor the radio display screen to await any incoming Mayday messages. When/if that message arrived, the designated Member would then copy the numeric radio identification information associated with the transmission in order to identify the source. This identification process included using hardcopy paper printouts to “map” an identification number to a specific Unit and Assignment (e.g., Engine 325 Nozzle position).
Beside the fact of the above being a manual, paper-based process, a major flaw in this method was that any other incoming radio messages would “step on” (e.g., overwrite) the original Mayday message and the observer would lose the radio information from the display before the source could be properly identified. As Mayday messages are many times accompanied with a flood of incident radio traffic, the loss of the Mayday message originator identification is a common occurrence.
In many fire departments, the incident commander will initiate a Rollcall to account for fireground personnel following transmission of an emergency alert message. A Rollcall is a personnel count initiated by the incident commander to ensure Member are accountability. Conducting a Rollcall via traditional procedures is often a lengthy process, involving the incident commander attempting to contact each individual person, or even requiring all personnel to physically relocate to report for a head count. These procedures consume valuable time that is in short supply when managing an emergency situation where an emergency alert has been transmitted and a Member is in distress.
These procedures prove to be especially cumbersome and ineffective for large scale operations, such as warehouse fires or high-rise fires. These situations often have sustained, high-volume radio traffic and sometimes hundreds of personnel on the fireground, making emergency alert identification and Rollcall processing very time consuming, difficult, and subject to inaccuracies.
No current system is available that provides a comprehensive, yet simple means of displaying radio traffic and other Asset data, associating it with fireground personnel, and allowing incident commanders to manage emergency alerts and initiate Rollcalls and PAR checks.
What is needed is a system that provides a comprehensive, yet simple means of displaying radio traffic and other Asset data, associating it with fireground personnel, and allowing incident commanders to manage emergency alerts and initiate Rollcalls and Personnel Accountability Report (PAR) checks.